USA > Iowa > Clinton County > Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 > Part 12
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From the wreckage of this wild scheme finally developed the Mississippi & Iowa Central Railroad company, with Clinton as the eastern objective point from which to operate. It lacked backing and was never constructed, but the eyes of eastern capitalists were on the Mississippi valley and the broad expanse of unexcelled agricultural lands to the west. Hence a line was pro- jected by these wise men, which was designed to connect at Clinton with the Dixon Air Line of Illinois.
So it was that on January 26, 1856, at Clinton was formed a new corpora- tion to be known as the
CHICAGO, IOWA & NEBRASKA RAILROAD.
which finally became the great Chicago & Northwestern, as known today. It made Clinton its eastern terminus and has always kept faith with its pledges. It saw its dark days, during the passage of the great land grants given to the four trunk lines passing over Iowa, as well as through the financial panic of 1857 that so completely upet all business prospects, at least for the time being.
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In June, 1856, the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska company was reorganized and Boston capital enlisted largely. At the same time Col. Milo Smith was appointed chief engineer. The line was projected into Iowa, as an extension of the Dixon Air Line, which had been extended to Fulton in 1855. The Galena company, of which the Air Line was a part, at first seemed much inter- ested in the combination, but later, owing to not being suited with provisions contained in the land grants of Congress, in which they felt slighted, they fell from grace and never assisted in the undertaking, but the new company pushed on to De Witt by May, 1857. In July, 1858, under Milo Smith's command, the whistle sounded forty-seven miles west of Clinton, at Clarence; in Decem- ber, 1858, the line reached Lisbon, and in June, 1859, the long and eagerly anticipated completion to Cedar Rapids, eighty-two miles distant, was ac- complished. It should also be noted that this road was built during the worst financial panic the country ever knew-that of 1856-57. While other com- panies received large help from county and state subsidies, this section of what is the Northwestern railroad received not a dollar, but was constructed by Boston (Massachusetts) money. Those who realize what the summer's heat and winter's blast meant in this country at that date, and the opposition met with by contending forces, will not begrudge the directors and officers of this "royal route" to the West a dollar they have made by the investment and personal sacrifice made to complete the great system which now reaches throughout the entire Northwestern country.
In 1860, during the March session of the Legislature, the state resumed the land on the proposed route of the Iowa Central Air Line, that company having failed to comply with the land grant requirements, that sixty miles should be ironed within three years. But the Assembly did not do the same by other railroads. On March 26, 1860, the Legislature hastened to confer the same land subsidy on the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad, coupled with a condition requiring the latter road to build a "plug," by Janu- ary 1, 1861, from a point of intersection with the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska line, within the corporate limits of Clinton, to Pearl street in Lyons. This action poured oil on the flame in making deeper the trouble between the two cities, and was not beneficial to either one. The prospect of a plug connec- tion was not considered favorable for the development of Lyons, while Clin- ton was positive that it was going to interefere with the growth of their city. The measure was opposed for years by the city authorities, who refused to grant a right of way, and by Iowa & Nebraska directors, who refused it a connection with their line.
Upon the breaking of ground in Clinton, by the Cedar Rapids & Missouri
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company, an injunction was served, restraining them from continuing work. The injunction forbidding the plug was, for some years, on the ground that the charter of the road did not permit them to build a road within the corporate limits of Clinton. The charter was amended and at the June term of the supreme court, 1868, Judge Dillon dissolved the injunction. The iron was laid to the junction of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska, whose franchise ex- tended to Second avenue, but nothing was done with the plug until, in 1869, the Clinton Institute took charge of the line and for some months administered its affairs with great enterprise and elected a full board of officials, and promulgated a burlesque time-table and map of the road, as elaborate as if issued by a trunk line, providing for sleepers, palace cars, through trains, emigrant trains, and giving a list of a dozen important "stations," including places for refreshments between Clinton and Lyons.
The Institute Company, after administering the road with such eminent success. turned over to the Chicago & Northwestern company, whose engines and cars it had been using for rolling stock, a dividend of several hundred dollars. Subsequently the plug, of course, became an integral part of the Midland extension of the Northwestern system. Not even the Erie railway produced as much excitement, litigation and controversy as did this road.
On July 3, 1862, the Galena & Chicago Union railroad effected a per- petual lease of the lines west of Clinton, contemplating an early extension to the Missouri river, in which work those who were foremost in building the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska took the chief part. Hon. John I. Blair, who was in his day "the greatest of all railroad pushers," became interested with others after the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska was completed and the work westward, though not as rapid as that of the Union Pacific, which had but a level prairie upon which to construct its roadbed, was pushed along with all possible speed, reaching Council Bluffs in February, 1867, connecting there with the three hundred miles of the Union Pacific line completed west from Omaha. As the Union Pacific road went on west, Durant, the master builder of that superb iron highway over the mountains, was indebted to Clinton lumbermen for the material for its bridges, snow-sheds and other structures, while the advantage to the lumbermen at Clinton was something wonderful-simply incalculable.
In August, 1862, the Galena company took possession of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska road under the lease, and continued to operate it until June, 1864, when occurred the consolidation between the Galena and the Chicago Northwestern companies into the present mammoth corporation, radiating from Chicago throughout the Upper Mississippi valley and lake region. The
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Clinton road, of course, passed under the management of the Northwestern system, subject to the terms of the original lease. Every one today recog- nizes this as one of the greatest systems of steam roads on this continent.
THE CLINTON RAILROAD BRIDGE.
After much surveying and quibbling between various companies and charter-holders for a bridge, the first pile for the piers was driven at Clinton January 15, 1859, and the last span was dropped on its bearings December 14th, the same year. The grading to connect with the Galena company's tracks at Fulton was completed January 8, 1860, and at noon, January 9, 1860, the first train made its passage over the bridge from the Illinois shore to Little Rock Island, where it was received by a salute of twelve guns. The total cost of the bridge was one hundred and ten thousand dollars. The main channel still had to be ferried across for some time, but in January, 1864, a bridge was begun over the main channel and the same was finished to the west shore and connection made by rail between the two great states of Illinois and Iowa at this point. It was ratified by a grand jollification, Clinton people not only congratulating each other on the beginning of the end of the Civil war, but also upon its all-rail connection with the East and West. This por- tion of the bridge was a Howe truss, and also contained a "draw bridge" sec- tion as well, which allowed steamboats to go up and down as readily, almost, as before. However, the river men and their attorneys saw great difficulty in the way of having this bridge-claiming that the rafting and boating business would be seriously crippled. An injunction was served against putting in the "draw," but the day the injunction was out the many workmen soon ran the completed draw over and the Clinton bridge became a fixture. Many changes have been brought about in the passing of a quarter of a century in this bridge site. As one sees the bridge structure today, with its imposing spans of mighty steel and iron cords, which sustain the long and heavy freight trains that sweep over its double tracks daily and hourly, year in and year out, the contrast with the original bridge is indeed striking. The present bridge was erected in 1908-09, at a cost of much more than one million dollars. The first train over the new structure was run February 22, 1909.
THE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL.
The Milwaukee railroad at one time had its line up the east side of the Mississippi river from Rock Island to Racine, Wisconsin; also a line from
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Savanna, Illinois, to St. Paul. From Elk River Junction a branch was built to Clinton. Not many years since it acquired, jointly with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy company, the old Davenport & Rock Island line from Moline to Clinton, which makes Clinton now a station on a prominent line, instead of on a "plug," this being now a direct line from St. Louis to St. Paul.
THE BURLINGTON ROUTE.
This great system-the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road, with about eight thousand five hundred miles of track-is also a factor at Clinton, mak- ing it a great distributing point. Two solid passenger trains are run each way daily between St. Louis and Minneapolis, through Clinton.
The Chicago, Clinton & Dubuque rail route was opened in the autumn of 1872, giving Clinton a valuable outlet to the north. In 1879, through pass- enger service was obtained via this route over the Clinton bridge, between La Crosse and Rock Island.
THE CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC.
What was once the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern railway-an Iowa enterprise, solely-and now owned and operated by the Rock Island system, now gives Clinton another rail outlet for both passenger and freight business.
These roads, with the excellent, recently opened Iowa & Illinois electric road, from Clinton to Davenport, gives Greater Clinton most complete rail- road service. The I. & I., as this is known, runs trains every hour be- tween the two cities, and its express or special limited trains make the trip in an hour and a quarter, over a first class road-bed, free from dust and smoke. It has come to be a very popular route to the Tri-Cities, less than forty miles to the south of Clinton. This road was opened for business November 20. 1904.
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CHAPTER IX.
AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS.
The pursuit of agriculture and that of lumber manufacturing have been the base of the industrial wealth of Clinton county-the former a native and natural pursuit and the latter an imported industry, which, with the passing of the Mississippi river high stage of water, has about vanished; but the farmer is still the man behind the wealth-producing elements of the county. In fact, in all ages the tiller of the soil has been the base of all wealth, and so long as the earth shall stand, the soil (with the minerals beneath) will continue to be man's support, for, remember, from the soil comes the food we eat and the garments that we wear-the wool, the cotton, the silk and the leather goods.
It was the fertile prairies, the rich timber land and the sparkling brooks and cold gushing springs of Clinton county that first invited the early settler to seek a home here beyond the Father of Waters, away back in the early thirties and forties. Because of this goodly soil, the white man caused his red brother to be removed farther toward the setting sun. No systematic record was kept of the earliest farming operations and the pioneer who plowed, sowed and reaped his pioneer harvests has long since mingled with the dust of the county in which he finally laid down life's burden. Farming was then in no sense the science that it has come to be known in this, the twentieth century's first decade. Men were without the labor-saving ma- chinery that they now possess; the hoe, the hand rake, the scythe and grain cradle were their only aids. Notwithstanding this condition, the first lands of Clinton county were thoroughly subdued and many hundred happy homes established, and what was in 1840 a wilderness has come to be a veritable garden spot of waving corn and kindred grains.
Then, but little attention was paid to the preservation of forests and less to the soil which was so rich that it did seem as though nature would ever require any aid to perpetuate its fertility. Such a thing as crop rota- tion is of recent origin in these parts. Hence in early days there was little need for agricultural societies and essays on fertilization. Nature was at her best. But as the settlement took on age, and government lands were no more to be ranged upon by cattle, then it was that farmers began to husband their lands and take more care of the elements that went into the crops pro-
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duced annually. The opinions of farmers have radically changed in this county in the last quarter of a century. Men now form themselves into clubs and county fair associations, visit experimental stations, read all sorts of farm and stock and horticultural journals, and even the good housewife takes care of her brood of chickens and employs the latest, new-fangled incubators in hatching chickens. All has passed to a more thoroughly practical state. The swamps are being speedily made dry, tillable land, the forests are being "conserved" by acts of Congress and by the people at home as well! The rail-fence days ended in the early seventies, when the barbed-wire invention came out. Every conceivable plan is now employed in bringing out the best results at the least expense to the mother soil. Crops are rotated and hence the farmer has come to be looked upon as not a "clod-hopper," but a man of influence and intelligence. One, Hon. James Wilson, of Tama county, was made secretary of agriculture and is still holding a powerful position in the National capital.
To give the reader an idea as to how this county and its ground-work for agriculture was viewed away back in 1855 by an extensive traveler who wrote in the Lyons Mirror, we will here insert his letter written for the benefit of the New York and New England farmer :
"Here is another conclusion that I have lately come to-that prairie farms look the best and are the most profitable. I have come to this con- clusion after traveling through several states. * * To illustrate this, and to compare the farmer of one part of the Union with another, will the reader accompany me to look at a farm in the New England states? There the soil will scarcely produce anything unless manured, and will not afford the farmer a living unless all work-the inmates of the house at the spinning- wheel or at some useful employment, as well as the father and sons in the field. This is so true, that the New England family had become noted for its industry and economy. It is not so with the farmers around me; they live in comparatively luxury compared with the former. Let us look at Pennsyl- vania. The soil there is richer than in Maine, and withal they have plenty of timber, a thing so greedily hunted by some that they sometimes pass by a valuable soil for it. A respectable farmer from Pennsylvania remarked to me this morning that he had come here to get away from timber; and well he might, for in Pennsylvania it takes one man's life to make a farm, and then he is called to leave it for others to enjoy. It is not so here. A man can make one in two or three years, and enjoy the benefits of it the remainder of his life.
"This morning I started from Camanche, taking a westerly course toward
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De Witt. I came to one of the finest prairies I ever saw. It is spotted with groves, and plenty of springs of good water. The soil is a rich black loam. The land is all bought and mostly improved. In fact, although it is only three or four years since the majority of the farmers settled here, the large fields and good frame buildings present the appearance of an old-settled country. And I see a number of eighty to one-hundred-sixty-acre cultivated fields that have yielded thirty bushels of wheat per acre, without manure. That is truly rich. The houses are good, large frame buildings, and painted The barns and sheds have a neat appearance. The farm-yard is well stocked with cattle, sheep, hogs and horses, all of which they raise. The whole- even the fields-has a neatness almost equal to a gentleman's country residence. I do not think I have seen anywhere a more prosperous community of farmers.
"Let us compare the prairie farms with those in the timber or oak open- ings. Everything about the latter has a meager appearance. The houses. out-buildings and fences look generally as though a botch workman had been the only one who had done anything. The soil is about half cultivated. The owners are of the poorer class and not well informed. How does this com- pare with the prairie farm I have described? The cause of the difference be- tween these kinds of farms and their owners is, I think, easily accounted for. On the timbered farms, there is the material for making a house, outbuildings, fences, etc., so that, if the land is bought of government, the purchaser gets with the soil the material for making a farm, at ten shillings per acre. Con- sequently, such is generally bought up by such of the first settlers as have little or no capital, but avail themselves of the pre-emption law. Such land requires almost endless labor to clear, but less capital to get along with, and as labor is the poor man's only capital, perhaps such land is best for him. If I have capital, give me prairie to make a farm out of, provided I get a grove sufficiently near to supply me with firewood. I am not the only one with these views. The moneyed farmer who comes west, by his actions says he is of the same opinion. I would advise such men, coming west to look for land, to travel though the country, as there is some fine prairie, which I presume can be bought at four dollars or five dollars per acre."
As early as 1868 there were in Clinton county enclosed as farm lands, 310,000 acres; under cultivation, 217,000 acres. There was land sowed to wheat amounting to 60,000 acres; corn 50,000 acres ; oats 24,000 acres. Of buckwheat there were 2,200 acres. There was also the production of 20,000 gallons of sorghum and 18,000 pounds of tame grapes.
At that date the average per acre for wheat (spring) was fifteen bushels ; of oats, twenty-six bushels; of corn, thirty-seven bushels; gallons of sorghum per acre, ninety-eight.
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An Old-Time Landmark at Clinton
HART'S MILL
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NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX, AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
Plowing and sowing and studying into the chemical make-up of the soil and finding what it was best calculated to raise, brought on a successful era. In 1875 came the state census reports and in them may be found the following items on Clinton county : Number of acres of improved land, 300,000; rods of fencing, 265,000; 1,010,000 bushels of spring wheat; winter wheat, 435 bushels ; 89,000 acres of Indian corn, yielding 3,061,000 bushels, etc.
Coming down to a later date as shown by the report of the United States secretary of agriculture, Iowa was first, second and third in rank, taking the lead over many states that hitherto held the rank for corn and live stock. This report shows that Clinton county was fourteenth in rank of the ninety-nine counties in the state in the item of corn. Considering her size, she came in at that time as seventh in rank of counties, because the acreage found in the three or four largest corn-producing counties in Iowa happen to be the largest in area of any in the state-Pottawattamie, Plymouth, Kossuth and Wood- bury, with Harrison and other large counties, all great corn counties. Then, in 1902-eight years ago-Clinton was seventh in rank in Iowa for corn.
While, usually, figures are dry reading matter, just here it may not come amiss to give the figures that reinforce the assertion that we have attempted to prove along this line, of Clinton county as one of Iowa's banner sub-divi- sions as a producer of wonderful crops.
In 1902, according to the government reports, in the United States there were raised 94,000,000 acres of corn; the product was 2,500,000,000 bushels, the greatest corn season on record. Its value on the farm was placed at $1,087,000,000. The average for the entire country, per acre, that year, was 30.8 bushels per acre. Coming down to the report for the same year ( 1902), for Iowa, it produced on 9,250,000 acres, 303,000,000 bushels, valued at the most of any crop ever raised in Iowa, $101,000,000. That year Clinton county had 124,000 acres of corn out of its 380,000 acres of improved and 32,000 acres of unimproved land. Its average per acre was that year 32.4 bushels per acre, two and a half above the average in the United States.
The census reports compiled in Iowa in 1905 gave the following: Num- ber of farms in Clinton county, 2,533; rented out, 1,911 ; share rent, 101 ; cash rent, 827; managed by a superintendent, forty-one. That year Clinton county raised 122,000 acres of corn, making 4,500,000 bushels, valued at $1,980,000. Wheat, 1,741 acres, bushels raised, 21,000, valued at $17,000; oats, 41,000 acres, from which was harvested 1, 188,000 bushels ; clover, 2,000 acres; tons of hay from same, 1,889; timothy, 49,500 acres, yielding 58,000 tons of hay.
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Coming to live stock, at the same date, there were 69,732 head of cattle, including 19,000 milch cows, all valued at $1,298,000. Horses and mules, 18,039, valued at $1,026,000. Of these cattle, those entitled to registry were 479 Shorthorns, 76 Herefords, 82 Polled Durhams, 206 Angus and 65 Red Polled.
The number of chickens raised that season was 261,000 and the eggs pro- duced from the same was 783,000 dozens.
From this great array of facts and figures, that cannot be denied, unless we dispute the authorities at Des Moines, at Washington and the township assessors which the voters of Clinton county township have elected to office ( for they made these figures and the facts were virtually sworn to by the farm- ers of this county themselves ), verily, the wealth of our goodly county comes from the soil we own and till after the most improved methods.
These figures not only show this to be a great corn and grain growing locality, but also that the live stock industry has come to be something of a factor, when the net proceeds are considered. Read the figures again-then reflect what they mean in material wealth to our citizens. Is it any wonder farmers have large bank accounts in Iowa now-a-days? Think of almost an even hundred counties producing almost as much and some much more-then one realizes the magnitude and wealth of the Hawkeye state, washed on the one side by the Mississippi and on the other by the Missouri river. It may be said of Clinton county, as of Iowa, "Of all things good, Iowa affords the best."
COUNTY FAIR ASSOCIATIONS.
At a very early day an agricultural society was formed and held its an- nual exhibits at Camanche, and at Clinton, a little later. Still later came the De Witt Fair Association, now in splendid working order, fulfilling its annual mission of exhibiting farm products, including the prolific growth of grains. vegetables, fruit and live stock. The fair was moved from Camanche about 1861 and for two years in the sixties the Iowa state fair was held here and this monopolized the real interests of the Clinton county fair for the time being. The state association offered twenty dollars in cash to the person who should write out and publish the best report of the state fair and that pioneer veteran newspaper man, Eaton, of the Lyons Mirror, was just short "twenty," so he was clever enough to take in the fair and go home to his "den" in the Mirror office, and win the premium. The state exhibit was on the old Clinton fair grounds, just south from the Lyons city line, and really the most of the fair was held in Lyons. It was on the old Deeds property and then this sec-
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